A new platform which increases the prominence and content of leadership development in the curricula of healthcare professionals has been launched.
Leeds based agency Ayup Digital was commissioned to support the NHS Leadership Academy to develop a tool which enables students, trainees and those undertaking continuing professional development to undertake purposeful observation of leadership behaviours in the workplace and reflect on their own leadership behaviours.
A discovery phase was undertaken in the first instance, which was undertaken in conjunction with innovation facilitators mHabitat. This included interviews with stakeholders, focused observation and a discovery workshop aimed at developing outputs to be used during the next phase of development.
Using the insights gained from the discovery phase, health tech specialists Mindwave Ventures scrutinised the insights and user needs set out by the discovery phase to create a comprehensive, detailed view of the proposition. Mindwave then mapped out and documented user journeys and customer experiences, progressing to develop a fully responsive web application.
Its UX researchers also supported facilitation in user testing workshops at NHS digital in Leeds, which further interrogated the accuracy of the user journeys that had been produced to ensure that the transition from design to development was clear, robust and meaningful.
The app allows students to identify, label and reflect on observed and enacted leadership behaviours in the clinical workplace, where these are a useful adjunct to more formal education and training. This is implemented through recording and observation within the app, which allows users to link observations to the leadership and reflect on the results.
Steven Taylor, managing director of Ayup Digital said: “We are so pleased to be working with the Leadership Academy to work on this project, which we hope is going to play a key part in the development of key leadership skills among future healthcare workers and clinicians. Both mHabitat and Mindwave played a key role in both the discovery and the development of the platform and it was great to partner with two such talented teams.”
Dr Victoria Betton, CInO at Mindwave Ventures said: “Training and development is an integral part of any business, but this is especially pertinent in the healthcare industry. It is brilliant to see that this is being considered as a key element of the health curricula. We are thrilled to be able to be a partner with Ayup Digital and help create an innovative and useful platform”.
